Adiós Nonino (Farewell, Nonino in Spanish) is a composition by tango Argentine composer Ástor Piazzolla, written in October 1959 while in New York, in memory of his father, Vicente "Nonino" Piazzolla, a few days after his father's death.

History

In 1959, Piazzolla was on a tour of Central America when, during a presentation in Puerto Rico with Juan Carlos Copes and Maria Nieves Rego, he received news of the death of his father, Vicente Piazzolla, nicknamed Nonino, due to a bicycle accident in his hometown of Mar del Plata. This news, coupled with the tour's failure, economic problems and homesickness, led Piazzolla to depression. After returning to his family's temporary residence in New York on October 1959 he composed this wonderful work in tribute to his father, based on "Nonino", another tango Astor had composed five years earlier in Paris, also dedicated to Vicente Piazzolla.

Dad asked us to leave him alone for a few hours. We went into the kitchen. First there was absolute silence. After a while, we heard dad playing the bandoneon. It was a very sad, terribly sad melody. Adiós Nonino was composing.

—Daniel Piazzolla, his son. Astor, Diana Piazzolla, 1986.

Background

The piece was based on his earlier tango Nonino, composed in Paris in 1954, of which he kept the rhythmic part and re-arranged the rest with some additions. It would prove to be one of Piazzolla's most well-known and popular compositions, and has been recorded many times with many different arrangements and with various instruments.

Nonino is an Argentine variation of the Italian word Grandfather (Nonno) used in the diminutive (Nonnino). The piece was written in honor of Piazzollas recently deceased father who was a grandfather and therefore called familiarly Nonino.

Notable uses

The piece was played at the royal wedding of king Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and queen Máxima Zorreguieta of the Netherlands (in homage to her Argentinian roots). It was also used by Jeffrey Buttle as his short program music for 2007-08 figure skating season, which includes his 2008 world Champion win and 2010 Olympic champion Kim Yuna as her freeskate music for the 2013-14 figure skating season, which includes the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

References

1. ^ Ástor Piazzolla biography
2. ^ History of the Buenos Aires recording remembered; the page has a link to a bandoneon solo performance video